Plant Conservation Unit at AZEF conference in Prince Albert: 3-6 October 2016
The Arid Zone Ecology Forum (AZEF) was initiated as a platform for researchers to investigate, highlight, and discuss the socio-ecological issues and potential solutions facing the arid and semi-arid regions of southern Africa. This year, AZEF held their annual conference from 3 – 6 October 2016 at The Showroom Theatre in Prince Albert, Western Cape. The event was sponsored by the National Research Foundation (NRF), the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) and the Plant Conservation Unit (PCU).
The conference began with a captivating keynote address from guest speaker and internationally renowned arid lands ecologist, Joe McAuliffe from the Desert Botanical Garden in Arizona (USA). Joe, who is a guest visitor at the PCU, provided some background and clarity on the polarised arguments about the origins and workings of the mysterious heuweltjie vegetation patterning phenomenon in South Africa, particularly his views on the context-dependent ecosystem engineering by the southern harvester termite. We are grateful to Joe for taking the time to visit us in sunny South Africa to speak about this hotly contested topic.
Joe McAuliffe presenting his views on the highly contested Heuweltjie debate (photographer: Hana Petersen).
Following Joe’s talk, the rest of the conference was divided into several sessions surrounding pertinent research in the Karoo, including ecological and conservation-related research, the impact of renewable energy and livestock grazing on the Karoo veld, and rehabilitation and long-term ecological monitoring projects in this biome. Timm Hoffman (presentation), Kervin Prayag (presentation), Hana Petersen (presentation & poster), Elelwani Nenzhelele (poster), Juan Swanepoel (poster) and Samantha Venter (poster) from the Department of Biological Sciences (University of Cape Town) attended the conference.
From left to right: Liesl Eichenberger (SANBONA), Joe McAuliffe (Desert Botanical Garden, USA), Timm Hoffman (PCU Director), Elelwani Nenzhelele (PCU Masters Student), Hana Petersen (PCU Masters Student), Samantha Venter (PCU Research Assistant & rePhotoSA project coordinator), Helga van der Merwe (SAEON Arid Lands Node) & Kervin Prayag (Honours student, Department of Biological Sciences, UCT).
Celebrating 30 years of Tierberg LTER
Prince Albert was a particularly important and relevant location to host the conference this year because of its proximity to the Tierberg Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, Wolwekraal Nature Reserve, a Karoo BioGaps project site and the unconventional grazing methods site at Tarkaskuilen. All of these locations were included as exciting fieldtrip options for conference attendees.
Select images from the Karoo BioGaps project site, all of which will be uploaded to iSpot as part of the citizen science biodiversity assessment (photographer: Hana Petersen).
Tierberg LTER (recently acquired by SAEON) was established in 1986 (30 years ago) by Prof Sue Milton (botanist) and Dr Richard Dean (ornithologist). Tierberg has been an important site for research on the Karoo including vegetation dynamics, grazing impacts, heuweltjies and rehabilitation. The success of the Tierberg LTER is owed largely to the hard work and dedication of Sue and Richard who devoted so much of their lives to its establishment and progress. We again acknowledge and thank Sue and Richard for the gift that they have given to researchers who follow in their footsteps in researching and conserving the Karoo biome.
Awards and prizes
Congratulations to Hana Petersen (PCU), Kervin Prayag and Juan Swanepoel from UCT’s Department of Biological Sciences and to Charmaine Manyani from the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University for winning prizes for the research that they presented at the conference. Details of their awards and the titles of their presentations are given below.
1. Oral Presentation
Winner: Petersen H & Hoffman MT. In retrospect: How the vegetation of the Tanqua Karoo has changed over the last century.
Runner-up: Prayag KD, du Toit CJ, Cramer MD & Thomson RL. Do camelthorn trees use sociable weavers to forage for nutrients?
2. Poster Presentation
Winner: Manyani CRS. From livestock to game farming: An exploration of farmer’s understanding of land use changes, sustainable agriculture and biodiversity conservation in the Ubuntu Local Municipality, Northern cape, South Africa.
Runner-up: Swanepoel J, Picker MD, Henschel J & Milton SJ. The influence of heuweltjie density and dispersion on ecological processes in Succulent Karoo ecosystems.
“Happy student, happy supervisor” from left to right: Kervin Prayag (runner-up best presentation – supervised by Mike Cramer), Hana Petersen (best presentation) and Timm Hoffman (proud supervisor of Hana’s project). Photographer: Samantha Venter.
Hana and Kervin’s certificates (photographer: Hana Petersen).
AZEF committee 2016 / 2017
The AZEF committee for 2016 / 17 is as follows:
Marco Pauw - SAEON (Chair)
Simon Todd - SAEON (Vice Chair)
Megan Simons - ARC & UWC
Timm Hoffman - UCT
Ismail Ebrahim - SANBI
We would like to give a warm welcome to Samantha Venter who has been nominated as AZEF Treasurer to replace Robbert Duker from NMMU. We are grateful to Rob for his hard work and dedication to AZEF during the 2015 / 16 year and we wish him all the best for completion of his PhD.
Thank you
This event would not have been possible without the generous donations from the NRF, the SAEON Arid lands Node, and the PCU.
The Showroom Theatre was an excellent choice for a venue providing finger-snacks on the opening night as well as tea and delicious baked treats at tea time. Dinners were held at the Prince Albert Bush Pub where scrumptious vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals were provided by Simply Saffron, an amazing way to end the day! We are also grateful to Namaqua Wines for their generous donation of wine for attendees to enjoy.
We are also extremely grateful to Gill Murray, the secretariat of AZEF, for her hard work and dedication in putting this important and successful event together. AZEF provides an important platform for students to meet, share their work and build lasting networks for the success of their future research careers.